"Certainly not!" Koi snaps, stomping a tentacle, apparently affronted at the very thought.
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The giant waltzing tentacled fish creature known as Mistress Koi, looks up from her rhythmic water-squirting with shocked face that only an intelligent four-eyed fish monster could muster and burbles something that sounds like the Common tongue equivalent of "Oh my stars and garters! Who are you?"
"Oh! Yes, that's it! That's how it goes! You're Caught!"
Then he empties his backpack, sticks it over the fox's head, and ties it off with one end of the rope.
"Right! That pointy-finned miscreant! Where is he?"
Surprised and confused the big fish burbles something.
"HM!? Oh? Um? Er. Well done? ... What 'fox?'"
"No, I couldn't have been wrong all this time. I am Caught after all."
"Oh! Yes, that's it! That's how it goes! You're Caught!"
Back on the overflowing mezzanine the party finds the big, multi-tentacled woman again swaying to an unheard tune rhythmically firing off great gouts of water from her body hither, and yon. When she finally notes the party's arrival she squints at them with all four of her eyes as if she doesn't quite recognize them. She burbles at them in the same strange tongue she originally tried speaking to them in when they first met.
"OH! WONDERFUL!" Koi burbles upon seeing and then being reminded of what the parchment fragments are. "Now where's Whatshisname? He has to be here so I can take him back to his imprisonment. The Maker is never wrong."
"'Scroll?'" says Koi a bit befuddled. "OH, YES! THE SCROLL!" "Just exactly what ees eet zou intend to do weeth ze fox? Eef zou intend upon sealing him into ze scroll again, I must inform zou that I cannot allow zat to happen. I zink a great wrong has been zere." "'Fox?' OH, WHATSHISNAME!" says Koi surprised again. "I wonder where he's got to.... And what do you mean you won't allow me to take my prisoner into custody again? What the Maker says goes! He's the Maker after all."
Koi blinks at the arrival of the party. By her expression you can tell at once that she has forgotten who you are.
Xusius takes another drink from his goblet and says in Sylvan, "Meestress Koi, Zou searching for ze missing piece zounds like a wonderful idea. Zou have not zold us ze truth about all of zi een my opinion. Zou just spout endless amounts of water and change ze story around whenever we ask zou questions. Zou could have flooded ze place and gone after eet any time zou wanted to do zo. Why haven't zou?" The fish blinks twice at Xusius (or four times depending on how you count blinking with four eyes). "Have we met? Well, whatever you are, you are right. Honestly, why didn't I think of that?" Mistress Koi starts pumping out torrents of water in all directions.
"Just look at him." implores the fish. "You can see the level of his depravity."
Xusius walks over to a table, pulls out a chair, and sits down. He reaches into his robe and gets out a goblet and a bottle of Sangria. Filling the goblet, he slams the bottle down on the table, obviously angered. After a long pull from the goblet he says to Mistress Koi in Sylvan, "Were you going to put ze fox back een ze scroll? What crime deed he commit to be sentenced to such a fate?" "Well, of course I was." she says to Xusius as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to do. "But, I'll need the rest of the scroll to do it. I suppose I'll have to flood the place, and just go look myself." Mistress Koi says with obviously distaste at the prospect.
"AH! There you are you malefactor!" cries the fish in a deep bass tone while pointing a tentacle. Well, alright then, with the scroll, and Whatshisface, and the command phrase, we're all set. Hold on a moment. There's a piece missing! I can't enact the spell without it!" She begins leaking water once more.
The fish looks confused and then seems to suddenly remember. "Ho! Mi memoras nun! Jes, kaj vi eĉ bonfartis alporti al mi ĉiujn ses partojn de la enigmo!" Sylvan: "OH! I remember now! Yes, and you have even been kind enough to bring me all six parts of the riddle!"
"Ĉu mi ne vidis vin ie antaŭe?" says the fish in Sylvan squinting all four of its eyes at the prisoner. "Mi konsentas. Kial vi povas diri, ke li estas krimulo nur rigardante lin. Nur rigardu tiujn du okulojn, kaj tiun rampan senŝanĝan karnon. Min ĝenas nur rigardi ĝin." She shudders. Sylvan:
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" says the fish in Sylvan squinting all four of its eyes at the prisoner. "I agree. Why you can tell he's a criminal by just looking at him. Just look at those two little eyes, and that creepy scaleless flesh. Makes me queasy just looking at it." "Ĝuste. Donu al mi la skribrulaĵon kaj ... ne, ne, diru al mi ... Mi havos ĝin nuntempe ... Er, um ... Kion mi denove faris?" Sylvan: "Right. Just give me the scroll and... no, no, don't tell me... I'll have it in moment.... Er, um.... What was I doing again?"
The troupe tromps once more through the foot-high waters of the library and up the showering stairs and through the rush of water to find Mistress Koi still lost in her dream dance. The fishy prima ballerina twirls about on her tentacle tips spraying water everywhere. She doesn't seem to notice the party's approach, until they are upon her. Startled she croaks: "ਆਹ! ਤੂੰ ਕੌਣ ਹੈ!" Aquan:
"AH! Who are you!"
Upon the mezzanine, the elf wizard finds Mistress Koi again pirouetting as if she didn't have a care in the world upon her tentacles to an heard and unseen orchestra while spouting water about in huge, well-choreographed jets from her body. She doesn't seem to notice him as he approaches.
"Well? What are you waiting for? That rascal isn't going to catch himself is he? Chop, chop."
"Really? Even the little one? She's not your child? Concubine? Out-growth? Parasite? Hmm.... .... .... What? Sorry. What where we talking about, again? .... Oh, yes! Perfect, Craig. You and your not-concubines find, and return whatshisname to me alive with all the bits of his magical scroll of confinement, and I-" she puffs up a bit like an imperious maiden aunt, "-shall wait here."
Xavier looks confused at the Koi's words . "Pointy and ineffectual pectoral--you mean these?" He gestures to his ears. Pointing and nodding at Xazier she says "Your goblin is correct. Does she like treats? I might have one." Koi begins patting her flanks with her tentacles. "Who's a good little girl? Who's a good little girl?" (This bit sounds like a fog horn making baby talk.)
"Oh yes, whatshisface was quite distinctive. He had only two tentacles and they didn't even flex right like yours." Koi says pointing to Zahd's arms. "And he was forked like you." she says pointing to Zahds legs. "He's only got two eyes and had rather pointy and ineffectual pectoral fins on either side of his tiny face like you've got...." she slows as she speaks almost as if some terrible suspicion were growing inside her, taking shape, reaching for one inescapable, ominous conclusion about Zahd. Then, she blinks. "What were we talking about? .... .... .... -Oh right! That smartypants! Yes, he looks a lot like you, though who am I judge such monstrousness--yet he carried it very, very well. Very distinctive, noble even, sharper in body, and mind, a credit to his designer and your unfortunate shapes. Completely unlike you--um--I want to say 'Craig.'" she chortles as what she had been thinking a moment before seems to return to her.
"Kiaj malamikecoj?" The fish says, and blinks all of her eyes at once. "Bone, alportu al mi ŝian nomon, kaj ĉiujn pecojn de la skribrulaĵo, kaj estas afero." Sylvan: "What hostilities?" The fish says, and blinks all of her eyes at once. "Fine, bring me whatshisname back alive, and all the bits of the scroll, and it is a deal."
"'Mortu?' Mi ne povas morti! Mi havas ion gravan por fari. Se nur mi povus memori .... Kiu vi estas? Io pri vi ŝajnas familiara. Sed kiu ajn vi estas, mi vere ne havas tempon paroli. HO! Mi devas kolekti la rulajn fragmentojn kaj kapti malnovan, kion li nomas antaŭ ol li foriĝas - la ŝelaj pantalonoj. Ĉu vi ne vidis lin havi vin? Li havas tre dikajn dorsajn naĝilojn, kiel vi ĉe ambaŭ flankoj de via vizaĝo, kaj havas ian forkovritan kofron kiel vi, kun paro da rigidaj tentakloj, kiujn li uzas por stari. Ĉu vi vidis lin?" says the fish to the elf. Sylvan: "'Die? I' can't die! I have something important to do. If only I could remember.... Who are you anyway? Something about you seems familiar. But whomever you are I really don't have time to talk. OH! I have to collect the scroll fragments and catch old what'shisname before he gets away--the smartypants. You haven't seen him have you? He has those sort of has pointy dorsal fins like you do on either side of your face, and has a sort of forked trunk like you with a pair of stiff tentacles he uses to stand on. Have you seen him?"
The fish stops in the middle of the fight, and brushes one tentacle to her small chin as if in contemplation. "Hm. Mi faris ion, ĉu ne?" Sylvan: "Hm. I was doing something wasn't I?"
Xavier prods the fish again and in return is bitten, and nearly sawed in half.
"Ho! Ĉu estas tempo por mia proksimo?" blurts Koi in surprise. Sylvan: "Oh! Is it time for my close up?"
"SAVU MIN! FRENEZA HUNDO! FRENEZA HUNDO!" Sylvan:
"HELP! MAD DOG! MAD DOG!"
Koi bellows and flails uselessly at Stafan, as the gods of chance once more smile upon him allowing him to elude the blows that have felled so many of his fellow party members. Sylvan:
"HELP! MAD DOG! MAD DOG!"
Immediately after his arrow strike home Koi shrieks, and squirts a concentrated blast of water at Zahd. Mi pensas. Atendu Kiu vi estis denove?" Sylvan:
"I TRUSTED YOU! I think. Wait. Who were you again?"
The blast hits Zahd like a hammer and knocks him from the bookcase. His body hits the stone tile with a *splash-thunk!*
"OW! BRUTOJ! ESPERANTOJ! BLANKAJ-KOLARAJ KRIMOJ! IMPAGAJ ATRIKOJ! MORTIGO SENHEJMAJ!" cries the big fish as Hoo's arrow finds its mark in its flank. Almost instantly though one of the thing's tentacles yanks it free. Sylvan: "OW! BRUTES! THIEVES! EMBEZZLERS! TAX ATTORNEYS! MURDER HOBOS!"
Still hesitating Stefan swings, but his hesitation cost him.
Again hysterical, the fish creature lashes out at it's small attacker. Like a giant piranha she snaps at Xavier and his rapier like bait on a hook. Moving as she does so to prevent being flanked again.
Hoo sprints up the stairs (Using a full run action), runs around the bookshelves, and takes cover behind the big fish, mentally preparing to finally contribute to the fight.
Zahd's errant bolt embeds itself in the cover of a extraplanar, glossy picture book called a TARGET™ catalog. Xavier prods the thing in the tail fin again causing it to jump. KIUJ ĈI POVAS? KIAL VI ATAKAS MIN? MI HAVAS GRAVAN LABORON POR FARI! Se nur mi povus memori, kio ĝi estis." Sylvan: [bigger]"OW! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE! WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME! I HAVE IMPORTANT WORK TO DO! If only I could remember what it was."[/b]
Zahd's bolt ricochets out into the library. The fish, for her part, stops screaming, and attempting to use Boomer as an improvised weapon, and instead blinks, and looks around. "Ĉu mi estis en la mezo de io?" burbles the fish. Sylvan: "Was I in the middle of something?"
The hysterical fish creature sweeps Boomer's legs out from underneath him and slams him to the stone tile floor. It bellows as it attacks. Sylvan:
"HELP! HELP! RAPE! MURDER!"
Xavier immediately jumps into action, deftly swinging at the fish with his rapier.
An arrow streaks out from behind Boomer's left ear and embeds itself into a text upon the nearest shelf entitled Art of the Deal. Xazier's rapier bends against the thing's scales. Realizing just how precarious his position is in-between the enraged piscean and his own allies, Boomer lashes out with his hammer, gaining the creature's attention. All four of the fish's eyes lock onto the alchemist. Then water wells up in those big glassy eyes, and runs down the fish's jowls like mountain streams. Then she begins hysterically bawling. "AL MI! ATAKTO! MI ESTAS ATAKTITA!" The fish bellows in her deep basso into Boomer's face spraying him with seawater. Sylvan: "HELP! ASSAULT! I'M BEING ASSAULTED!"
"BONA KANINA FARO! ESTAS LA ĈEJO POR TI!" roars the fish. Sylvan:
"BAD DOG-THING! IT'S THE HOSE FOR YOU!" The fish squirts a blast of water in Vozzik's direction that is strong enough to knock one of the bookshelves along the wall behind him over, it tips into the next shelf tipping it into the the next shelf, and so on until....
Mistress Koi blinks all of her eyes at once, and looks around. "'Settle?' In this mess!? Oh no no no. I am on an important mission for my Maker. I am charged with keeping the notorious rogue, um, er--hm. Now don't tell me! It's on the tip of my tongue. Silly name. Rhymes with 'orange', or 'rainbow' I think.... Hmmm.... ...." This goes on for a while as she ponders. She looks up from her thoughts after a while and says [ooc]Sylvan subtitles [b]"Oh, hello. Were we discussing something? Sorry? I don't remember getting your name. I seem to have lost my train of thought. Ah! No, I remember! Whatshisname! He won't get a way from me!" Then she waddles on her tentacles over to the railing and shouts in nearly subsonic boom "YOU HEAR THAT YOU--YOU MALEFACTOR, YOU! I'LL FLOOD YOU OUT!" The waterworks begin again in earnest.
The creature looks at Zahd in the same way the elf might look at a lobster if it started talking to him. The creature begins to burble anew but in a markedly different tongue. Sylvan: "Oh! So you can speak Common! That's remarkable! I am Mistress Koi. Now you and your school... er, family... pets perhaps, best move. I'm about to flood the area."
dice:
The fish watches Zahd for several minutes.... It smiles (an odd sight on a sofa-sized fish creature's face) and nods. It pats Zahd on the head with one thick tentacle, and then straining returns to pumping out even more water.
Hoping that opposites attract, Boomer tries to communicate using the language of his forebearers. ?!?!?
"ਐੱਮ? ਇਹ ਲਗਭਗ ਇਸ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਹੈ ਜਿਵੇਂ ਇਹ ਅਜੀਬ ਜੀਵ ਮੇਰੇ ਨਾਲ ਗੱਲਬਾਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਕੋਸ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹੋਣ. ਜੇ ਸਿਰਫ ਉਹ ਆਮ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਬੋਲਣ ਲਈ ਕਾਫ਼ੀ ਸਭਿਅਕ ਹੁੰਦੇ." the thing burbles to itself and then is bellows in a nearly subsonic bass-tone that can be heard all over the room. "ਆਪਣੇ ਕੁੱਤੇ ਨੂੰ ਕਾਲ ਕਰੋ ਜਾਂ ਇਹ ਹੋਜ਼ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਕਰੇਗਾ!" Aquan: "Hm? It is almost as if these strange creatures are trying to communicate with me. If only they were civilized enough to speak the Common tongue." the thing burbles to itself and then is bellows in a nearly subsonic bass-tone that can be heard all over the room. "Call off your dog or it will get the hose!"
"ਉਹ ਕੋਣ ਹੈ?" rumbles the fish creature. Aquan:
"Who's that?"
dice:
!?!?!? The grodair looks up. All four of its eyes open wide and stare at the party hiding behind the bookshelf. It blurts out: "ਆਕ! ਇੱਕ ਵੱਡਾ ਕੁੱਤਾ ਅਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਚਾਲ ਚੱਲਣ ਵਾਲੀ ਮੋਮਬੱਤੀ ਵਾਲੀ ਚੀਜ!" in a deep blubber baritone. Aquan: "Ack! A big dog and an ambulatory talking candle thing!"
Mistress Koi waddles over to the stair and looks down into--well, Deluge who seems to be "sucking it in". This allows her to look down, through the grill-work and into the dark waters of the sub-basement. "Oh! It doesn't seem that bad. Why I'll bet it barely crests your curious lower fork. Really Craig, you do worry so. No, I best leave it where it is in case I have to suddenly flood the whole establishment." "Besides-" With that one word her expression turns sly again. She draws close and nudges Xusius with one thick tentacle. "That will give you a reason to return to me." Mistress Koi chortles.
"And go do that what do you call it again--running? Go running all over the place. No, no, no. Best to flood the area out to a few miles, and then collect him when he can't get away so easily." rumbles Mistress Koi before a sly expression comes over her big face. "I suppose I could hold off on that if you and your pets were to go collect him for me. Hm?"
"'Todd?' OH! Sorry! I though that was you, um, err, Craig was it? Well, he's about your height and build (two eyes, and no proper tentacles), a bit of a ponce. He has pointy head fins like you...." Mistriss Koi starts looking closer, and closer at the elf wizard. "Hm...." she says circling Xusius. "But his nose is more developed. Stronger, more defined cheek bones. Surprisingly piercing eyes even if he only has two of them. He has a certain regal air to him, an animal magnetism that is not at all like you, Craig. He certainly smells better too. In short, he's a bit like you, but much, much better. Though he was certainly not at all my type. And his name is um.... well. Give me a minute.... It's on the very tip of my tongue. Rhymes with 'orange', or was it 'rainbow'...? .... Sorry, what were we talking about again?" says the befuddled lady fish. "Whatever it was, I should probably get back to trying to flush him out." Mistress Koi says, and readies to start her sprinklers again.
Once Xusius translates Mistress Koi's words, Yangrit suggests: "Perhaps you should ask her about the owl and the albatross down there...."
"Who?"
"Hm? Oh yes, I'll need them to get back, and to get Whatshisname back too. If you really want to help--um... er, um, I want to say 'Todd'--you'll find the rest of this scroll and that smartypants Who's-it and bring them to me."
Shocked, the fish jumps back knocking a bookcase over. "You speak the common tongue!? You should have said!" Regaining its dignity it rises to its tentacles and says in a very proper female baritone "Well, at least now I can tell you to get out of the way so I can flood the surrounding area.... Why was I going to flood the surrounding area again? .... .... Hmm? Don't you go telling me now! .... AH! I REMEMBER! My obligation to the Maker!" The fish takes a deep breath puffing up to nearly double the size, and then--and then lets it all out again. "Wait. Who are you? I am Mistress Koi."
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